❖ Did somebody slip them a reality pill or is this a ruse? “G-20 Ministers Aim for More Job Growth.“ They “are fully committed to take decisive actions to return to a robust, job-rich growth path.” More: “The debate between growth and austerity seems to have come to an end.”

❖ Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ): “The executive branch now views every American as a potential suspect first, and as a citizen second . . .. When our government suspects its own citizens we have lost the founding principles of liberty and equality.”

The Detroit bankruptcy, which we discussed a bit this morning on Elliott’s talking heads thread, is interesting in that a state-federal conflict may be in the offing. The MSM have reported that a bankruptcy judge has already been appointed at the federal level, but have downplayed the fact that a state judge has ruled the filing to violate the Michigan constitution.

“AP, July 22, 2013 at 7:06a ET: Operator of crippled Japan nuke plant finally admits radioactive water leak into sea [...] A Japanese utility has said its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is likely to have leaked contaminated water into sea, acknowledging for the first time a problem long suspected by experts. Experts have suspected a continuous leak since the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was ravaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. [...] TEPCO said Monday the leak has stayed near the plant inside the bay. ”

The vultures are circling to pick clean the bones of Detroit. Only in the U.S. would a major urban center be thrown on the trash heap but then many if not most Americans and certainly the ones making the “big decisions” care little for community or civilization.

Good morning, Pups. On Holt’s assertion that the Executive Branch and more broadly the US government consider all American citizens to be suspects (there is no such thing as a potential suspect): I think he sums it up in a nutshell. One consequence of this is that Americans will cease to see themselves as citizens and come to regard themselves as subjects. But subjects of whom? There’s the rub; we son’t have a hereditary monarchy like the Brits and the Canadians, and if we don’t own the government, who does? We are headed toward a major crisis of legitimacy. The short term solution is that he who owns he army and the police owns the state, but this is not a stable solution, and given our traditions woul d not go down well even with our subservient punditry. The tell here is what David Brooks comes up with to justify authoritarianism.

Y guess is that the legitimisation will come from deification of the market as the only real arena of ‘freedom.’ This implies suppressing any actions and even thoughts that might infringe on propery rights. That’s how it worked in the ante-bellum Suth, and represents a truly American solution to the proble. Of course there was that pesky issue of human slavery…

Cameron is mad, in two or more meanings of the word. There is no stalemate in Syria, Asad is winning. O’s stratagem of putting off plans to overtly arm rebels terrorists, cannibals, beheaders has succeeded. Soon that stellar group that the U.S. & its vile allies has wrought on Syria will be mopped up.

U.S. owes Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, …, …, …, war reparations.

Syria is the third U.S. war against a shitty little country that the U.S. has lost in a row. If the other destabilizing efforts are not included.

Good morning, fatster and all. My news is more local. Getting back to the issue of contraction in the legal industry, there was an article in the Sacramento Bee yesterday about the ripple effect of the declining demand for law degrees:

“It’s a ripple effect,” said Kevin O’Brien, managing partner of Downey Brand, a Sacramento law firm that last month laid off nearly a dozen administrative and support staff.

McGeorge Law School in Sacramento has also reduced their staff – academic, administrative, library, clerical, janitorial, etc – by about 45% due to declining student enrollments. A lot of other law schools and law firms are in similar positions.

I read mockery of OWS and/or obituaries for it. Yet there’s a rather dedicated group of OWS here in Sacramento regularly protesting at big banks against their unfair – and likely illegal – foreclosures. There was such a protest at the Oak Park BoA on Saturday.

“We were trying to spotlight basically criminal behavior that Bank of America has engaged in,” said Wuriu, an Occupy Sacramento member.

Doesn’t get much media attention, but good for them! They have also protested at Wells Fargo recently. Better than nothing, IMHO.

And finally, file under “If I don’t laugh, I’ll cry”… this little propaganda tidbit published in the SacBee but originally in the WaPoo about how horrible it is for asylum-seekers in Russia.

I guess Lally was schooling us proles not to get ideas above our station and think about questioning the MOTU. Mother Russia will not be kind, and we’ll be amongst the huddled masses begging to be let back into this “Shining City on the Hill.”

Good afternoon, fatster and all. It seems to me that the number of young people with physical and mental problems, including any combination thereof, is growing nationally. I don’t think that it is just a question of better reporting. This is overwhelming most schools: the number of individual education plans is overloading schools and there are no answers. Most people seem to feel that this is a scam of some sort.

As far as online courses are concerned, I think that they are jokes for the most part. The big desire of the schools is to reduce cost/pupil (including teacher costs) and bring in as much money as possible. There is no real desire to bring education to anyone.

I think that if things keep going as they are, Assad will once again be in control of all of Syria and Hezbollah will be invigorated and stronger. Perhaps our govt will reconsider any desire to attack Iran. If there is an incident here at home, it will be a false flag and we should look for some other perpetrator than Iran.

You can bet that the requirement of a warrant would constrain nsa from continuing its wire tapping ways. I will feel so freed from worry if such legislation passes.

That story’s been bobbing up and down, I think since late last week, mafr. In one way, a relief to see it finally confirmed but in another, of course, it’s most frightening. And what can they do about it? How will it end–or will it end?

In case you hadn’t noticed (snark icon goes here), what we’re doing to our children weighs heavily on me, BearCountry. I keep trying to pack in as many items as I can in the “Education Direction” section. So much of it is so disturbing, particularly that article about the impact of withholding funds for mental health on the students themselves, as well as their classmates, the teaching staff–the entire school and community!. I do appreciate knowing that those items are being read.

The future is in the hands of the children of today–and look how we’re treating them!

I do have a positive story in today’s Roundup, btw. Hope you have time to check it out.

Good news too that studies are being done on such things as “on-line education”. I’ll sure keep my eye out for more, and hope you will too, BearCountry.

Occupy Sacramento regularly gets out and protests at the various big banks. I have to keep my eyes peeled for reports about it. Sometimes up to 100 show up, which is pretty good turn-out actually. The SacBee usually reports on it, but my reading of the Bee is sporadic.

It’s doubtful that these rather regular protests are reported elsewhere, but I have no tv, so have no clue about other coverage, if any. I take my hat off to those who do this, however, esp since Jeffery David Olson got into a lot of hot water in San Diego for his protests against BoA. Luckily the jury acquitted Olson.

I imagine you’ll cover this in tonight’s “Surveillance Planet,” fatster, but in case you haven’t seen it the crack investigative reporter Dana Priest has an eye-opening article today on the substantial physical growth of NSA facilities since 9/11, and not just at Ft. Meade and the new center in Utah.

Zounds; how great to hear that Priest is alive and cookin’. I’d actually done some Giggle searches to see what might have happened with her after her Top Secret America expose. (Some of the Frontline video here)